Sunday, January 21, 2007

I am reviewed very favorably (along with some good helpful criticism) in the LA Times book review today. I'm even on the centerfold page of the review section, which is fun! This feels very signficant to me--I haven't been reviewed by the LA Times before. Every Sunday, the book review is the first thing I read in the paper. I think part of me has worried that if I didn't read the book review section first, somehow the book gods wouldn't smile upon me. I always feel a little guilty when I even glance at another section first--silly, but true.

When The Book of Dead Birds came out, I assumed the Times would review me since I was a local author and the book was set in Southern California, plus it had won a lovely award, but a review there never came to pass, despite my superstitious loyalty to the book section. Between that and the fact that I hadn't been invited to be part of The LA Times Festival of Books (which I've also loyally visited over the years), I was beginning to feel--and I know how silly this is, too--that somehow I wasn't cool enough to warrant attention from the Times. And now not only have they reviewed me, they invited me to be part of the book fest this year! I am very happy (although I still don't feel like I'm at the cool kids' table. The writing gods are trying very hard to keep me humble today--I'm completely zonked by a cold so I haven't been able to enjoy the experience as fully as I'd like. But I am still thrilled.)

3 comments:

Congratulations! Nice to see the Times give your novel some well-deserved ink.

In the past I think the Times had a fear of looking provincial, and they seemed to go out of their way to show that they were a BIG NEWSPAPER and not a local paper. But maybe they're getting over that.

I know it was goofy and irrational of me to take the Times' previous passing-over of my work personally, but somehow I couldn't seem to help it. Ah, the convoluted inner life of the writer! I am so happy to be reviewed in their pages this time.

And yes, I just saw that article about the mummified baby--so creepy and sad! Thank you for thinking of me! I think I'll blog about it now...

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About Me

I am the author of Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperSanFrancisco), Dictionary Poems (Pudding House Publications), and the novels The Book of Dead Birds (HarperCollins), which won Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize for Fiction in Support of a Literature of Social Change, Self Storage (Ballantine)and Delta Girls (Ballantine), along with my first novel for young readers, My Life with the Lincolns (Henry Holt). You can visit my website at www.gaylebrandeis.com or email me at gaylebrandeis at gmail.com. I am on the national staff of CODEPINK: Women for Peace and am a founding member of the Women Creating Peace Collective. I live in Riverside, CA, where I am currently serving a two year term as Inlandia Literary Laureate, and am mom to two adult kids and a toddler.